Darren Aronofsky’s Batman: Year One

Following the critical and box office failure that was Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin, his planned third installment Batman Triumphant (a.k.a. Batman Unchained) was shelved, as Warner Bros. looked to rethink their plans for their Dark Knight. Ultimately a reboot of the character was decided upon and Warner Bros. originally approached auteur director Darren Aronofsky to handle the project. Given his creative tendencies and the studio looking to take the character in a darker direction as opposed to Schumacher's colorful interpretation, there was a lot of intrigue as to where Aronofsky could take the character. The original plan was to take Batman back to his origins with a loose adaptation of Frank Miller's comic Batman: Year One, but creative differences between the studio and director ultimately led to Aronofsky exiting the project, paving the way for what audiences eventually received with Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (pictured).